MULTAN, Sept 21: Although the federal government announced to import one million tons of wheat and the provinces increased release of stocks to mills, prices of wheat and wheat flour have not declined.

Some officials are of the view that estimates of wheat crop were not correct and some others, including flour mills owners, believe that the export of wheat is the main reason behind price spiral.

In Pakistan, unfortunately farmers were always deprived of getting a reasonable price of their produce.

Despite all efforts made by the governmental institutions, per acre yield of wheat could not exceed 27 maunds. The prices of diesel, seed, fertilisers and pesticide are increasing day-by-day but agricultural scientists to date failed to introduce a single variety that could increase per acre yield of wheat.

This year the official price of wheat was fixed at Rs425 per maund. Farmers work hard on their crop for six months, including extreme winter months of December, January and February. They buy seeds, fertilisers and pesticides but they could manage to get only Rs400 against per maund that was the highest price ever achieved during the present regime.

Total price the farmers obtained for per acre crop was Rs10,800 while after subtracting the expenditure they could earn only Rs20 per mound. The only advantage farmers get is that they first store wheat for their personal consumption.

It is on record that when the government announced to export surplus wheat due to the estimated bumper crop, the flour mills owners started opposing the decision.

Farmers have become victim of the conspiracy of profiteers from day one in this country.

The conspiracies against the farmers have succeeded once again when hoarders, speculators and profiteers managed to assure the government that the wheat export decision was wrong and the government should not dare export wheat next year.

Neither the announcement to import one million tons of wheat, nor the increasing release of wheat stock by the government has the desired impact on prices. People are still facing difficulty to buy wheat or wheat flour. They avoid purchasing wheat flour from ‘Sasta Bazaar’ launched by district governments at reduced rates due to the substandard stuff.

Analysts believe that if the government is sincere to reduce the prices of wheat and wheat flour, they should start monitoring flour mills. Even Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi admitted that smuggling of wheat flour to the neighbouring countries was one of the reasons for higher prices of wheat and wheat flour.

Despite the loud talk of smuggling and the increased grinding capacity of flour mills - four times greater than their consumption - why didn’t the government plan to monitor the flour mills, the analysts asked.

The government should ask the flour mills how much wheat they were grinding daily and where the wheat flour is going.

The government should give authority to the district governments to check all those sale points where flour is being dispatched by the mills, they suggested.

This step would not only help reduce prices, but would also benefit farmers.